Another anti-record for salmon catch forecasted for Sakhalin and Kuril

A preliminary forecast for the Pacific salmon fishery in summer 2021 as published by the Federal Fisheries Agency, sets the potential volume of salmon catches as low as ca.460 thousand tons. The forecast is actually in keeping with the salmon harvest in 2019, and 30 thousand tons less than the salmon catch in 2018, reports Megafishnet.com.

According to Sakhalin.info, the biggest catch is expected in Kamchatka, about 350 thousand tons namely. The forecast for the Sakhalin region is dissatisfying - only about 45 thousand tons. This is 1.5 times less than 67,000 tonnes harvested in 2020 and 76 thousand tonnes in 2019.

Though the forecast is only preliminary, the Sakhalin fishermen already say they do not expect a noteworthy upward correction. According to Maxim Kozlov, President of the Association of Fishing Companies of Sakhalin Oblast, the industry knows about the excepted decline in salmon runs, first of all pink salmon which normally makes the biggest contribution to the total harvest, and is ready for the corresponding restrictions.

Salmon runs to the shores of Sakhalin and, to a lesser extent, the Kuriles have been declining for several years – after breaking the records in early 2010s. Therefore, the salmon harvest has been rapidly falling. The key reason behind that is too big fishing efforts, and local ecologists even appeal to a total ban of the commercial pink salmon fishery in 2021. Along with overfishing, another reason behind the low abundance of the salmon stocks is the fundamental climate changes in the Pacific Ocean. And every year the discussions on who is more guilty – the fishermen or ocean warming – keep on arising stronger than before.

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